Pride goeth before the fall. That old adage could apply to Venus Williams after her pitiful performance in a 6-2, 6-1 loss to Kim Clijsters in the final of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami last week.
Williams, who wore a wrap on her right thigh leading up to the final, added another one below the left knee for the match against Clijsters. She was obviously not herself, and Clijsters won 30 of her 55 points on Williams unforced errors. During one stretch in the second set, Williams was masterfully inept, dropping 17 points in a row.
"I was just unable to push today as much as I wanted," she said. "I just couldn't. I tried. I just was unable."
It brought to mind what she said after winning the title in Dubai in February. "I had a hard time last year with my fitness (playing with a bandaged left knee much of the time after Wimbledon). I learned how to manage my pain better. It was just a curve on how to really manage playing and pain level, and keeping the swelling down. I (now) have no huge, horrible strap. I hated that thing.
"I usually don't talk about injuries this much. But I'm starting to feel better, and I'm excited about it. Maybe that's why I'm talking about it."
But from Dubai, Williams flew across nine time zones to play in Acapulco the very next week, while also going from a hard-court surface to clay.
Even if she had two weeks off before Miami after also winning the title in Acapulco, she had to play three tough sets there in each of her last three matches and, in all, a total of 10 matches in 12 days.
Though there was likely a financial incentive in terms of an appearance fee - maybe as much or more than Acapulco's total prize money of $220,000 (US) - it would seem ill-advised, at 29 and with her medical history, to be playing so much tennis in such a concentrated period on different continents and surfaces.
It's only speculation, but it may have caught up with her in Miami playing an opponent as good as Clijsters.
Venus is usually the more sensible of the Williams siblings, but the Dubai/Acapulco back-to-back could prove costly for her in the long term.
Younger sister Serena, 28, is probably still paying for pushing her body to near the breaking point while winning the Australian Open final in January - 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 over Justine Henin.
Just like Venus against Clijsters, Serena played with one wrap on her right thigh and another below her left knee. She was sketchy against Henin and actually lost 15 points in a row from late in the second set until early in the third. But, like the peerless competitor she is, she cranked up her level to win five of the last six games and notch a 12th Grand Slam title.
She later described her ails - "I pulled a hamstring in Sydney (two weeks earlier), so I was devastated by that. However, when I strapped it, it felt a lot better. Then, something happened to the side of my leg in Sydney. When I strapped it, it didn't feel better, but it helped a little bit. And, of course, I tape my ankles for prevention. I think in the third round I twisted my ankle, and I fell against Victoria Azarenka (in the quarter-finals) and hurt my wrist. And then somewhere in between there my toes started hurting."
Serena, who has had a chronic problem with her left knee since surgery in 2003, appeared in little pain right after her victory. Celebrating with her pals, she giddily roamed the hallways of Rod Laver Arena while Daniel Nestor was doing an interview in one of them after losing the men's doubles final.
But she has not played a tournament since.
Last week, she was photographed cheering for Venus at the Sony Ericsson, frolicking in the ocean surf and socializing at a nightclub.
She also tweeted, "Have u guys been liking my new look?? @nikkiBstyle did it. She just joined twitter..I'm obsessed with my new look."
The new look is essentially a shorter hairstyle, which, at the moment, is certainly more prominent than the killer cross-court forehand that has out-manoeuvred so many of her opponents.